The iPhone may be one of the most popular cameras in the world today, but it hasn’t always been like that. The original iPhone (and the iPhone 3G) had just a 2MP camera, with no flash, putting the handset well behind the competition in terms of photo-taking.

Since the 3G, however, Apple has made sure to update the phone’s camera with ever iteration. It went from a 3.2MP sensor to a 5, and then to 8. And wouldn’t you know it, someone has created an image showing its improvement in picture quality over the years…

It’s pretty cool to see how the iPhone’s camera has evolved over the years. Each picture looks better than the one before it in some way or another, whether it be sharpness, lighting, saturation or color. It’s especially noticeable on the right-hand ‘detail’ side.

And according to the rumor mill, the next iPhone isn’t going to break tradition. Recent reports suggest that the ‘5S’ will look similar to its predecessor, with upgraded internals and an improved camera system. We’ve heard the sensor could be as big as 13MP.

NONONONONO we do NOT need more megapixels! This is one thing that HTC has realised and has done really well with the ONE’s camera! Nobody needs that many megapixels and it just ruins image quality!

Kurt

You only need 8+ megapixels if you are going to print them out and print them out to poster size. If you are going to do that, get a real camera. My camera roll takes up way too much space on my iphone because each picture is so big. I wish we had 3-5 meg cams with image stabilizer like the Lumia has. And concentration put into image quality. Or at least, let us choose the size we want to take the pictures at. Some may still want to take large shots and then crop it. Choice is a good thing.

RarestName

On my mother’s Galaxy Note I can choose the megapixel size. I believe there’s a tweak on iOS which can do the same thing as well.

Kurt

+1
yeah i know. i didnt want to mention how the galaxy phones can do it. if i did i would have been down voted like crazy. I didnt know about the iOS tweak, I’ll try to find it. Thanks bud!

Gorgonphone

ummmmmmmm fact is you still can choose a higher quality setting than the phones physical max available by its hardware so what is you pony..?? and iphone 5 wins the phone camera wars against all phones that matter..

Kurt

Lumia 920 has the best camera hands down.

We are talking about lowering the megs, not increasing them. and what the hell does this mean, “…so what is you pony?” Actually, don’t bother answering that. I don’t care.

Gorgonphone

Umm no one cares about any luminas dude most media professiknals still chise iphone 5 over all other phones soo

Altaykai Yamada

Dont forget that thats your opinion, OK?

Gorgonphone

Its fact thats its my opinion and true… You can think and say anything u want

Dan

I think that’s joejonsen, he can’t tell the difference between opinion and fact

false profesional digital canera are 32 MPX plus for super high res and large format images..

Dan

I may be mistaken since I don’t have an iPhone anymore, but can’t you adjust the mega-pixels on the camera? If not on the native app I seem to remember on camera apps you could.

Kurt

Not on the native app. Apple’s native apps are very limited. I don’t know any 3rd party apps that can adjust the mega pixels. But maybe?

Kurt

You have a Touchpad right?

Gorgonphone

more pixels is great for marketing though..lol

Falk M.

At first people thought more MP was better, then they started to think more is worse.
Folks, more MP is neither better or worse.

The MP can make your life easier on huge print outs if the rest of the camera and the post processing USE those MP and don’t ruin the image’s fine quality.

If Apple put a larger sensor in their iPhones you can be sure as hell that the rest of the camera will get improved on as well making the quality yet again top-notch for a smartphone.

And speak for yourself, you might not need more MP, but I sure as hell will take all the resolution I can get, because I can still downscale my pictures, but I can’t upscale them and get more quality.
Comparing Apple to HTC? Boy, I won’t even start on that.

Some folks like being able to crop a picture and not end up with a particular element of the picture looking like it was taken with an iPhone 3G or 2G…

I think the 3GS shot was overexposed. I noticed that apple has tried to concentrate on giving natural colors in the camera. WYSIWYG. I have always compared the i5 with other cameras and it seems that Samsung just increases the saturation and it makes the photos look vibrant but not natural.

More quality means more memory 16 gbs is readiculous in these times apple move on or let us plug in esternal memory please.

Gorgonphone

Repovable memory is towo slow

genXhippie

No, removable memory to not too slow. That sounds like something Apple would say, just so they can justify not providing us with this option. Give us the feature and we’ll choose on our own whether not to use it or not. 😉

A popular camera? It’s a popular phone with a camera. Anyone who cares at all about photography isn’t going to use a phone’s camera

Darek Slaby

Actually according to Flickr the iPhone has the most popular camera in use today beating out standalone cameras. That’s not to say it’s better than all other cameras it just means it’s the most popular one in use today.

Your figures don’t negate my point at all. Better luck next time Tiger

Darek Slaby

As I’ve said before, the iPhone has the most popular camera but that doesn’t mean it’s the best camera in the world. Two different thinks. Next time do a little research before making ignorant statements.

Ankush

folks, I think the 3GS’ camera was average when it came out, but got better with subsequent iOS updates, specifically iOS 5.